100 manual steel mills closed on supply crunch
Thursday, 28 April 2011
FE Report
Nearly 100 manual re-rolling mills with a combined capacity of around 900 tonnes a day were shut down over the last few months, mainly due to inadequate supply of raw materials from ship breaking yards, owners said Wednesday. Besides, buyers are now more conscious about using steel rod leading to the sharp fall in the demand of the building materials produced at manual re-rolling mills. Owners said the market shares of new auto steel mills increased significantly following the closure of manual mills. Bangladesh Re-rolling Mills Association (BRMA) said its market share has shrunk to 20 per cent from 60 per cent. Sheikh Fazlur Rahman Bakul, general secretary of BRMA said: "Nearly 100 re-rolling mills have been shut down over the past few months leading to workers' retrenchment of nearly 10,000." He said many manual re-rolling mills are now trying to turn their plants into auto mills to produce quality rods in bulk quantity by using imported billets. "I've also opened letter of credit for import of machinery to install at my closed mills and make it an auto-re-rolling mills," Mr Bakul, chairman of Bikrampur Re-rolling Mills at Rupganj, said. According to BRMA, 30 re-rolling mills were shut down in Narayanganj, Shayampur and Postagola area and the remaining 70 in other parts including northern districts. Azad Re-rolling Mills, Hossain Steels, Desh Steel and Desh Re-rolling Mills, Baby Steel Mills, Al Islam Re-rolling Mills, Orient Re-rolling Mills, Nine-Star Re-rolling mills, Royal Steels, Ali Steel and Re-rolling Mills, Alambagh Re-rolling Mills, Jamuna Steels, and Tejgaon Steels are the leading ones closed over the past few months, according to BRMA statistics. Bashirullah, former secretary of Bangladesh Steel Mills Owners Association, told the FE: "I've also closed my mills. I've closed many due to uncertainty of raw materials." The manual mills use ship-breaking plates and produce non-grade rods. Old ship import had faced a slump last year. Sheikh Masud, president of Bangladesh Auto Re-rolling Mills Association, said the number of auto mills is rising significantly. "At least 12 more mills will be converted into auto mills shortly," he added. Currently around 50 re-rolling mills are in operation across the country. Bangladesh's demand for rod is growing on an average 10 per cent with annual consumption worth nearly 3.2 mills. BSRM, AKS, RSRM, GPH Ispat, KSRM, Islam Steels, Baizid Steels are the leading players of Bangladesh's' rod market.
Nearly 100 manual re-rolling mills with a combined capacity of around 900 tonnes a day were shut down over the last few months, mainly due to inadequate supply of raw materials from ship breaking yards, owners said Wednesday. Besides, buyers are now more conscious about using steel rod leading to the sharp fall in the demand of the building materials produced at manual re-rolling mills. Owners said the market shares of new auto steel mills increased significantly following the closure of manual mills. Bangladesh Re-rolling Mills Association (BRMA) said its market share has shrunk to 20 per cent from 60 per cent. Sheikh Fazlur Rahman Bakul, general secretary of BRMA said: "Nearly 100 re-rolling mills have been shut down over the past few months leading to workers' retrenchment of nearly 10,000." He said many manual re-rolling mills are now trying to turn their plants into auto mills to produce quality rods in bulk quantity by using imported billets. "I've also opened letter of credit for import of machinery to install at my closed mills and make it an auto-re-rolling mills," Mr Bakul, chairman of Bikrampur Re-rolling Mills at Rupganj, said. According to BRMA, 30 re-rolling mills were shut down in Narayanganj, Shayampur and Postagola area and the remaining 70 in other parts including northern districts. Azad Re-rolling Mills, Hossain Steels, Desh Steel and Desh Re-rolling Mills, Baby Steel Mills, Al Islam Re-rolling Mills, Orient Re-rolling Mills, Nine-Star Re-rolling mills, Royal Steels, Ali Steel and Re-rolling Mills, Alambagh Re-rolling Mills, Jamuna Steels, and Tejgaon Steels are the leading ones closed over the past few months, according to BRMA statistics. Bashirullah, former secretary of Bangladesh Steel Mills Owners Association, told the FE: "I've also closed my mills. I've closed many due to uncertainty of raw materials." The manual mills use ship-breaking plates and produce non-grade rods. Old ship import had faced a slump last year. Sheikh Masud, president of Bangladesh Auto Re-rolling Mills Association, said the number of auto mills is rising significantly. "At least 12 more mills will be converted into auto mills shortly," he added. Currently around 50 re-rolling mills are in operation across the country. Bangladesh's demand for rod is growing on an average 10 per cent with annual consumption worth nearly 3.2 mills. BSRM, AKS, RSRM, GPH Ispat, KSRM, Islam Steels, Baizid Steels are the leading players of Bangladesh's' rod market.